Business Challenge

In an effort to improve storage scalability and future-proof its IT infrastructure, Unifon migrated from VMware to Nutanix with Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV). Beginning with one 4-node Nutanix cluster, the Unifon's operations team added a second 3-node cluster several months later, handling the entire Unifon's enterprise workloads.

The goal was to simplify overall IT operations on to a single Nutanix platform.

Unifon had been using Veeam for backup and recovery, but the switch to Nutanix would require changing licensing and added complexity. “Going ahead with Veeam on Nutanix didn’t make sense to us,” says Unifon Operations Manager Ivelin Ivanov.

Solution

Attending the Nutanix .NEXT conference, Ivanov met other Nutanix users who were using HYCU for backup and recovery and who suggested he check it out. Speaking with HYCU representatives, Ivanov says he recognized the value of HYCU’s native Nutanix integration right away. Following a proof-of-concept, he gave the go-ahead for full implementation of HYCU. “HYCU made sense because it was a perfect fit for Nutanix,” Ivanov says.

Benefits

Native Nutanix integration

HYCU is purpose-built for Nutanix, allowing a seamless user experience. “It’s like just another appliance on Nutanix,” Ivanov says. “It doesn’t require a separate hardware or a separate power or space to run.” Deployment was fast and easy, he adds. “We had the HYCU instance running, the storage connected and the first Nutanix cluster backed up in less than an hour. Updates just happen.”

Simplified management

HYCU provides a “single pane of glass” for all Nutanix clusters, simplifying
backup and recovery management. “We now have a good overview of the entire
infrastructure,” Ivanov says.

Faster Backups

HYCU dramatically accelerated Unifon's backup and recovery performance. “It’s not IO intensive and it performs incremental snapshots, so it doesn’t put much pressure on the workload while it’s performing backups,” Ivanov says of HYCU. “That’s a big difference from Veeam.”

--- 

About the customer

Unifon AS is a European provider of communications solutions for corporate customers. Recognized for innovative mobile, VoIP and conferencing solutions, the company has its own cloud-based platform. Established in 2004, Unifon is based in Oslo, Norway.